Monthly Archives: October 2012

WE NOTE that on page eight of today’s Oxford Mail that the Rose & Crown, which used to be our local hostelry here in Old Oxford Toone, has made it to the top six best pubs for real ale in this tiny city. I am a Kite boy now, though. More here. The same group that published the Ox Mail also publishes a “newspaper” called the Banbury Cake…. It be very rustic round here. ¶

AFTER ATTENDING the lovely Tony Dennis’ birthday activities in Baker Street, we made our way to Isambard Station, to entrain to Oxford. There we did espy a lady – pictured – engaged in many a sketch of the passengers in our compartment. By a strange device, we captured her as she drew first the lady on the right and then the gentleman on the left. She then turned her attention to me and did a fast sketch, but dashed from the train when it arrived at Oxford, no doubt to catch an omnibus to her final destination. ♦

“…we showed the Abbott the celestial and terrestrial globes. He was especially interested in the former, wherein he recognised all the twelve signs of the Zodiac, calling them by the same names that we use; and he gave us an interesting little lecture on the science of astronomy as known in Tibet. Tibetan astronomy comes from the Hindus, and consists mainly of a mass of absurd superstitions and legends grafted upon very accurate observations of the actual movements of the heavenly bodies.” (An account of the British Invasion of Tibet | Colonel Younghusband | 1904)

Hmm. Kaalacakra and the Tibetan Calendar by Edward Henning, New York, 2007 is worth a read (ISBN 978-0-9753734-9-1) . Appendix II has a chronology of the Shambhala kings. ♠

I WAS IN LONDON yesterday for the launch of Beelzebub and the Beast, by David Hall and published by Starfire Publishing. It describes the congruences between George Gurdjieff and Alastair Crowley. David died in 2007 and this book was written in the 1970s. Starfire has done a fine job with the edition – it is very handsome indeed, and a great tribute to my dead friend. ♥